You’re average. I’m average. This isn’t in comparison to others, but simply in comparison to whom we have the potential to become. On the scale of what we can be, we’re falling short. To ‘Man Up!’ is to stop making excuses and start taking action, no matter how difficult this action may be, a man doesn’t give the power over his life to another, he holds it in his hands and does his utmost to create something good and valuable to him and to others.

Men need action, physicality. We need to work with our hands. We need to fight and face fears and get hurt but keep struggling.

Jobs are nice, they provide food for our family, but our jobs don’t provide us with the release, the outlet that was once our daily routine.

Get out into the world, into nature, walk into a boxing gym and fight. You’re not made to be calm and quiet, but fierce and dangerous. Start being manly once again. (Read This: How to Get Confident, Be More Manly, & Rule The World)

That statement is true for everyone. Even the most important of us today will be of no significance when we’re dead even if our legacy helps shape the future, we’ll have no physical part of it.

So don’t sweat the small stuff, don’t worry about the future because one day the future will no longer be. Be present because to be anything else is a futile and useless state that will rip the joy from your life and give it to places in time where you cannot be, or can no longer be.

We need to know that we can get punched in the face and fight back, that it’s not all that bad. So many of us live in fear of harm, of getting hurt or injured or getting a scratch on our pretty little faces.

We once fought all the time, even as kids, but more-so as men hundreds of years ago. It’s a tad barbaric and uncivilized, but that’s who we were far longer than we’ve been humans sitting at computers, sedated by our daily life, unable to understand this burning desire for action and adventure that we hold deep down but can’t shake.

So, and I’m writing this assuming you’re an intelligent human, get punched in the face. Get in a fight, for fun, or in defense of someone who needs it. Go to a boxing gym and sign up. Get a little danger in your life, and if you get hurt, get healed. (Read This: How Much Can You Know About Yourself If You’ve Never Been in a Fight?)

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, two ends of a very broad spectrum, must cut you to your soul at some point in your life.

We need the highs and lows, we need to be in them, remain in them, feel them. We need the thrill of adventure, the high that comes from accomplishment and the feeling of “flow” that comes from being present, focusing only on what’s being done, not the future nor the result, but the task, the adventure.

We need adventure in our lives. It’s not something we save up for, but something we do. (Check This Out: A Man’s Guide to Adventure)

We live in a society where intentions are often applauded, as are mere actions, no matter the result they produce.

We give awards for participation. We pat ourselves on the back for “volunteering”. What we don’t do is understand that it’s only good results that really matter.

What use are you if you volunteer to teach kids how to play hockey but you don’t know how to skate?

>Responsibility is simple taking control of your life. People are afraid of control, it requires that they work and sacrifice and learn. When we blame others – be it people or a system – for our problems, we relinquish the responsibility we have for our lives and our future. It’s easy.

The masses like easy, the stronger recognize the necessity of difficulty.

The world is not an easy place. It’s filled with pain and loss and failure and without the strong we’re all doomed. ‘Tis a shame they’re so few, but better few than none.

We train our body by putting it through pain. By putting it through pain and persisting, we also train our mind and our soul, we strengthen them, toughen them.

Anyone can be happy and successful within perfect circumstances, it’s the strong that find the good in the bad, the opportunity in hardship.

In reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl you get a stronger sense of the power of the mind, of choice. We can choose our mood, our outlook on a situation to either improve our lives or make them worse.

Most choose to make their lives worse through envy and greed and hate, a few, though, choose to see what they can control in a situation and react accordingly. If there’s nothing to control, at the very least they can control their outlook.

Be one of the strong, choose to control your reactions to hardships in a way that will better your life. Never pity yourself. It serves no purpose.

More Man Up Monday: Never Give An Excuse